Google Fit to compete against Apple’s HealthKit platform

Apple made several moves to bring developers back to iOS at WWDC, considering the vast growth of Android it is no surprise Apple wants to make sure their mobile platform is more capable of full of features. One of the biggest announcements was HealthKit, a new API for developers on health and fitness apps, but Google might be able to match this move at Google I/O.

Google Fit will be this trump card, according to several sources close to Google’s plans. The new health service will be available on Android and Android Wear, Google’s new wearable platform. The app will take over the failed Google Health service, shut down in 2012 due to inactivity and failing to really achieve Google’s goals.

A lot has changed in the past two years and the move to wearables should bring HealthKit and Google Fit to the mainstream, where previously health and fitness apps were a rather niche market. This will not only be for people who want to shed a few pounds, but for people with health conditions that need updates, which Google Fit will generate using sensors in their smartphones and wearables.

Not much is known about the interface and what will be available, Google Fit will most likely be able to interconnect with other third party apps on the platform, similar to HealthKit. Apple really knocked it out of the bag with Health and all the app and platform could do, we are expecting some big moves from Google to match.

The world of health and fitness is still rather small, Nike, FitBit and a few others have taken a commanding lead on the fitness part and health applications and services are only just becoming available. Apple and Google will need to be in contact with a lot of those services if they want users to actually check up on their health daily.